Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance said he was struggling through audio issues Friday morning as his feed during a CNN interview became “super staticky” just at the very moment he was pressed on his running mate’s position on abortion.
Former president Donald Trump said in an NBC News interview Thursday that he doesn’t support the six-week abortion ban put in place in his adopted home state of Florida, arguing that it’s too restrictive. A ballot initiative that Floridians will vote on in November would overturn the ban, an initiative of Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans.
“I’m going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump said.
That led the Trump campaign to swiftly clarify that the Republican presidential nominee was not suggesting he supported the initiative. “President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” the campaign said, in a statement.
When Vance appeared on CNN’s News Central on Friday morning, anchor John Berman pressed him to make sense of Trump’s statement. “He said he was going to vote for more than six weeks, so what’s your understanding of how he will do that?” he asked.
Vance said Trump was “opining” on the issue as a Florida resident and “wasn’t making an announcement last night.”
“I think what he’s saying is that he doesn’t like doing it at just six weeks,” said Vance. “Obviously, he’s going to make his own judgment on how he ultimately votes on the amendment.”
Berman then sought to clarify. “So it was a grammar thing?” he asked. At this point, Vance’s audio feed from CNN appeared to cut out, as Vance began asking Berman if he could repeat himself, stating that on his end things sounded “super staticky.”
CNN cut to a break to resolve the issue and put an end to the awkward moment.
When Vance returned with audio restored, Berman pressed him again, though the Ohio senator restated that “Trump is simply saying he doesn’t like six weeks” and thinks his running mate will make a later announcement about his position on the Florida law and ballot initiative.
Probed further, Vance emphasized that Trump prefers abortion policy be made at the state level and said he’s more focused on inflation.
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